It is impossible not to think about the biblical plague of locusts when hearing about the swarms of locusts coming into Israel from Egypt!
Jerusalem Post article on the current locust plague
A locust - uggh!
It is estimated that millions are already in Israel, and a few (how many is a "few" of "millions"?) have already been sighted near Jerusalem and even as far north as Haifa! We are all following their "progress" with trepidation, hoping that the current cold weather and winds will either kill them off or blow them out of the country.
So far we haven't seen any in Netivot -
Baruch Hashem - and I hope it will stay that way!
Did you know that the locusts invading us are kosher according to some Moroccan, Algerian and Yemenite traditions? The present Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, said (in this week's Hebrew "Mishpacha") that he remembers eating locusts as a child in Morocco! He added, however, that the question of whether other communitiues can rely on this tradition is "not relevant" because people who were not brought up to eat them would never be able to bring themselves to do so - and he added that he himself could not bring himelf to eat a locust today!
Well, he may be right regarding himself and most other people - including me! - but I can show you a young chareidi rabbi who was
not too disgusted to eat a kosher locust - Rabbi Nosson Slifkin (whose parents are friends and neighbour of my parents). Last year he participated in a fascinating "Torah Banquet" that included many rare kosher foods, including cooked locusts - for those who could stomach them.
I decided against posting the picture of Rabbi Nosson eating a locust (actually it makes me feel a bit nauseous), but you can read all about the banquet (and see the picture) at:
Zoo Torah - Judaism and the Animal Kingdom
Interestingly he says that one of the signs of a kosher locust is a Hebrew letter
chet on the locust's abdomen - which he blithely calls "nature's equivalent of an OU
hechsher - well, I do eat OU, but not
O Chet thanks.
There's lots of other interesting stuff on his site too. An interesting fact discovered - about lions not locusts - is the following:
"The Talmud states, “Be as brazen as a leopard, as light as an eagle, as swift as a gazelle, and as mighty as a lion to fulfill the will of your Father in Heaven.” The power of the lion surely cannot refer to the lion's raw physical strength, as the Talmud is not teaching us to engage in bodybuilding. Rather, the Talmud is working with its own definition of true power - the power of self-control.
"Like all big cats, lions are predators and therefore have aggressive natures. An aggressive instinct makes it difficult to get along even with members of one's own species, which is why tigers, leopards and pumas all lead solitary lives. It is only the lion that somehow controls this aggression and lives in groups. This is the power of the lion that we are enjoined to emulate."
I think that is a fascinating insight.
Rabbi Slifkin and friend
